Fake Fifa sites are everywhere: How fans can stay safe

Unbeatable football stars, historic goals and legendary goalkeepers: The Fifa World Cup has begun in the US, Mexico and Canada, but the frantic search for tickets remains. Many fraudsters are trying to scam football fans online.

In May, the US domestic intelligence service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) warned against scams and said it was issuing a public service announcement "to warn the public that cyber threat actors are conducting spoofing attacks against the Federation Internationale de Football Association (Fifa) website in advance of the 2026 Fifa World Cup."

It went on to explain that "a spoofed website is designed to pose as a legitimate website, with branding, product listings, etc., and malicious actors use them to further illegal activity like personal information theft and facilitating monetary scams."

It also listed dozens of suspicious domains that had already been identified but said that "the public should be aware that new websites will continue to appear."

DW Fact Check has put together some tips on how to spot scams.

How do I recognize a fake site?

URLs: Fake websites often have URLS that resemble those of the original sites with minor differences. For example, the official domain fifa.com might be altered to filfa.org, fifa-online.com, fifa-2026.xyz, fifaworldcup26.sale or fifa-com.services.

Legal notice: In Germany, Austria and Switzerland and various other countries, websites with commercial or editorial content must display a legally compliant imprint. Therefore, if a website does not have one, it suggests it is not a legitimate site.

Fakeshop-Finder: In Germany, you can use this online tool provided by the Federation of German Consumer Organizations (VZBZ) to find out whether a site is legit or not. You just need to put in the URL.

Look up a domain: You can check when a site was registered at www.whois.com

Fifa tickets at exorbitant prices

According to TicketData, a US platform that tracks major sports events, FIFA currently has thousands of official tickets left.

But they are expensive and that is probably the biggest hurdle for many fans who would like to attend a game. The cheapest tickets for the June 12 match between the US and Paraguay was going for $2,000 on June 10, and tickets for Sunday's match between the Netherlands and Japan cost $900.

Verified ticket resale sites such as Seatgeek, StubHub, Vivid and Gametime often offer FIFA tickets at lower prices.

Though FIFA and consumer protection agencies still advise consumers to only purchase through official FIFA channels to avoid being scammed, these sites are established ticket marketplaces that offer refund guarantees. Purchases are legally valid.

The GoalPass app allows users to compare ticket prices on the various platforms, both the official FIFA site as well as those of unofficial resale sites.

On June 11, a ticket for the Germany versus Ivory Coast game on June 20 was going for $932 on Seatgeek, while it cost $3,398 and upwards on the FIFA site.

Experts see no contradiction in the fact that FIFA allows tickets to be sold at significantly lower prices on other platforms. "The last thing it wants is loads of unoccupied seats - not just for the optics but also because any empty seat means a value of $0," wrote BBC football correspondent Dale Johnson.

"The figures show that fans are not prepared to pay the high prices for tickets for the less desirable games," he added. "This suggests Fifa cannot get the high face value on its own site, leading to the speculation it is trying to sell the tickets elsewhere - without reducing the prices itself."

This article was originally written in German.